Stone Soup

Where young artists paint the world with words

The international magazine of stories, poems, and art by young writers and artists. Published continuously since 1973.

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Irises

Every day I am reborn
as something

new.

I am a prim cherry blossom,

a sleek flying fish,

a youthful scholar

I am everything all at once;
a savory dash of powdery cinnamon,
a sprig of scorched chard.

I am the pulse of the air
I inhale,
I am one of seven billion

Homo sapiens.

But no matter

what or

who

I am, I will always gaze at our world of

infinity

from behind the same gleaming obsidian pupils,
the same shining chestnut irises.

Irises Caroline Smyth
Caroline Smyth, 12
Raleigh, North Carolina